The Huron Navy
The Huron Navy is the main space-borne military force of the Huron Technocracy. They are responsible for transporting the Huron Army to where they need to go, and for serving as the Huron's space-faring military force. History Although the Huron always had a 'navy', usually conflicts and politics would be so fluid there was never a formal creation of an official 'navy' up until several decades ago. Since then, the Huron Navy has been in service of the Huron Technocracy in the face of many crisis and cataclysms. Organization Types of Huron ships The Huron utilize a vast and versatile list of ships designed to be adaptable and powerful in most fields of combat. There are several types of ships, each fitting into one of several categories. Escorts Escorts are small, but very fast and agile ships designed more for escorting ships, or doing light raids on the Huron's enemies. Most Escorts don't have the firepower to stand up to anything larger than another Escort on their own. * In the Huron Navy, corvettes don't see much use other than being used as a fighter-support unit. Due to their small size (in comparison to everything else), these ships are comparatively fast and agile, and although they cannot hope to win engagements against larger ships, they are oftentimes fitted with large amounts of PD weaponry. Although Frigates are better in escort missions, corvettes are commonly deployed among large starcraft squadrons and strike forces, which again due to their speed they are capable of keeping up with. * Frigates are the smallest ships that are used in escorting missions and reconaisance. Frigates are also the smallest ship that can be considered a capital ship if they are required to do so. Their mixed weaponry makes them effective against most targets other than larger capital ships, but they are mostly used to support the PD of the ships they are escorting, making them play a vital role against factions that tend to use a lot of Starcraft and guided ordinance. Their scanners and tracking systems are designed to be as accurate and fast as possible to effectively dispose of targets within the shortest timeframe possible. * Destroyers are specialized ships designed for ship-to-ship combat. Their high speed allows them to bob and weave between larger ships, even in close-combat, firing devastating salvos from numerous close to mid-range weapons batteries. The most recent destroyers have the capability of moving individual weapons batteries from one part of the ship to the other, allowing them to engage enemies at nearly any angle. Cruisers Cruisers are the mainstay ships of the Huron Navy. Huron Cruisers are designed to be as adaptable and modifiable as possible, allowing for Cruisers to take on most foes with incredible effectiveness. There are three subtypes of cruisers: * Light Cruisers * Cruisers are the backbone of the Huron navy, and therefore are designed to be versatile and adaptive to different situations. Most Huron cruisers are designed with hulls that are easy to reconfigure, in the case that a new enemy decides to show up on their doorstep. There are many classes of cruiser available to the Huron Navy. The most recent cruisers (named Generation 11 cruisers), are designed with the capability of not only moving weapons batteries, but also individual armored plates to different parts of the ship, allowing them to have considerably more durability than one might expect of a cruiser. * The battlecruiser is the cruiser's bigger, more specialized cousin. A mixture between a battleship and a cruiser, these ships are designed for situations where a battleship either isn't needed or isn't available. Armed to the teeth with weapons batteries, and being the smallest ships capable of mounting a Void Lance, these ships are purposefully designed to inflict as much physical damage to their enemies as possible. The battlecruiser is unable to shift their weaponry and armor, however to make up for it their weapons are placed in positions where they can fire at most angles around the ship. Capital Ships Capital ships are the second largest type of ships used by the Huron Navy. Most of these ships are specialized into a particular role, be it frontline combat or for carrying forces to and from battles. * Carriers are entirely dedicated to carrying starcraft (and in some cases, smaller ships) into battle in large quantities. Carriers are oftentimes used not only for carrying starcraft, but can also be used as command ships, since they are most likely going to be in the rear of the battle-lines (if there are any). In order to protect their precious cargo, most carriers of today have the ability to shift their interior to an extent as a way to shield hangars and maintanence bays from damage, and they have the ability to shift armor and PD arrays, however since they don't have many weapons batteries they can't shift them around. * Battleships are the most famous class of ship in the Huron Navy. With the firepower to subjugate an entire star system (and destroy them at that), the battleship is a nigh-unstoppable force of sheer firepower and durability. Most battleships of today are equipped with not one Void Lance, but two, and are configurable to the point that they can be comparable to cruisers in terms of configuration capacity and adaptability. However, their main focus is to be the capital ship of the fleet, and to deal and take as much damage as physically possible. The most recent battleships are beginning a refit for more powerful weapons, including experimental antimatter weaponry (although this weaponry is only commonly used on ships larger than a battleship). Super-Capital ships Super-Capital ships are very large, and the most powerful types of ships the Huron have ever developed. Supercapitals are even more specialized in what they do, and are extremely effective. * Supercarriers are the smallest ship type classified as supercapital ships. These ships are much larger than normal carriers, and have the capability of transporting possibly hundreds of thousands of starcraft on their own. Supercarriers are comparable in size to dreadnoughts and the larger battleships, although they don't have nearly the combat capabilities of a frontline warship. They are still armed with more PD than even a ship of it's size would normally have, but aren't armed with much else. * Dreadnoughts are the third largest and most powerful warships ever designed by the Huron. Decked with experimental weaponry and countless secondary weapons and PD, these ships are designed from the ground up to be an unstoppable force on the battlefield. Most dreadnought carry a secondary complement of starcraft or nanoswarms, and have the capability of carrying a limited number of troops if needed, allowing them to fulfill multiple roles. * An adaptation of the Dreadnought, Forged-Dreadnoughts were developed when normal Dreadnoughts aren't enough to turn the tide of a war, or even a battle. Extremely large and capable vessels, Forged-Dreadnoughts take firepower to such an extreme that only one is needed to destroy an entire Navy's-worth of ships. Weaponry on these vessels are normally planet-killers at least, though considering the types of defensive abilities that some races have in this universe, even these weapons could only do so much. The 'forged' in their name comes from it's building process, taking the best Forge Masters and Technomancers to enhance and create these Dreadnoughts, with superior materials and construction techniques. * Leviathans are the ultimate in conventional Huron military technology. Armed with weapons that even put Dreadnoughts to shame, and having the durability to survive the event horizon of a black hole, these ships are so powerful they can bring the downfall of multiple empires if need be. Very few (in comparison to other ships) have been made, and they have never been brought into active combat, making the vast majority of the population think that such vessels are simply a myth, a fairy tale designed to scare off potentially hostile empires. However, these ships do exist. Only one has been confirmed to exist, though reports on them are shady at best, since the Huron's keep a very tight lock on their capabilities. Unknown Unknown ships, or ships that don't have many members of their class, are classified as Uknown due to their rarity, and most oftentimes due to the mysteries around their tech and what they are capable of doing. The only 'known' Unknown are Guardians, ships rumored to be so large and powerful that only the precursors who built their technology would know their exact capabilities. Naval rank hierarchy Huron Navy weapons and systems The Huron Navy use a variety of advanced weaponry in space combat, with some designed specifically for a specific kind of target. Point Defense There are three known Point Defense weapons the Huron use: Arc-interceptors, Grav-beams, and Void Interceptors * Arc-interceptors are powerful, short-range Point Defense weaponry designed to destroy large swarms of relatively light starcraft, though they work best against starcraft that are mechanical in nature (as in, have little to no biological parts except for the pilot). They fire massive bursts of smart energy that, upon contact with an enemy starcraft, split into many different streams that hit more targets, and continues to do so until the energy spreads too thin. The impact of this energy fries electronics that aren't shielded extensively. * Grav beams are tractor beam-esque weapons that rely on gravitons to throw, slow down and crush opposing starcraft. They are very effective against larger starcraft (up to smaller corvettes), crushing them under their own weight. Smaller ones are either slowed down considerably or thrown around like ragdolls. * Developed in response to a rise in Ghoul incursions, Void Interceptors are powerful PD weaponry that fire the same energies that Arc-cannons do, except they go through a micro-rift stabilizer designed to refract whatever goes through it into multiple dimensions, allowing the energies to affect trans-dimensional targets. Their design is not perfect, and is bound to change as time goes by. Main Batteries Main batteries are large and very powerful weapons used by the Huron Navy as anti-ship and orbital bombardment weapons. * Particle Accelerators - In the Huron Navy, particle accelerators are mounted on basically every ship that isn't a starcraft, even the corvettes (although the ones on corvettes are much weaker than, say, a battlecruiser). These weapons are separated into several categories based on their firepower, from D to S (D being the lowest, S being the highest), with D-class particle accelerators being not much more powerful than ground-based WMD's, to Grade-S accelerators destroying moons in a single blast. They are the most common form of primary armament. These weapons, again, have two distinct modes: a medium to short-range beam mode that slices through ships and rock, and a concentrated blast that, on the largest accelerators, have the power to vaporize small moons. * Tachyon Emitters '''- Tachyon emitters are powerful mid to long-range weapons designed to fire Tachyons at FTL speeds, making them more efficient at long-range warfare than most other Huron weapons. Due to their superior accuracy, range and supposedly firepower in comparison to particle accelerators, Tachyon emitters are slowly beginning to phase out particle accelerators. Light Tachyon emitters have firepower reaching into the high megatons-low gigatons on full power, with superheavy tachyon emitters going to planet-destroying levels, even to the extent that small stars can be affected. * '''Mass Driver - Mass Drivers for the Huron's are massive weapons that throw slugs close to the speed of light. Most mass drivers are put on smaller warships that are unable to equip Void Lances (simply because these mass drivers can crack planets on full power if they're aimed correctly), and are mainly mounted as a spinal weapon. However, older ships have a turreted version of the mass driver that's weaker, but has a higher rate of fire. Due to the physical nature of their ammunition, these weapons are not able to be shifted like other weapons. * Grav-cannon - Grav cannons are the Grav beams larger cousin, able to crush capital ships under their own mass, and causing ships to collide with one another, turning an enemy's own ships against them. A nasty side effect of this kind of weapon involves accidentally tearing pieces off nearby celestial bodies. Lances Lances are very powerful primary capital-ship weapons designed to cause as much destruction from a single shot or gun as possible. There are two known types of Lances. * Void Lance - This is one of the more unique weapons of the Huron Navy. A spinal-mounted graviton weapon mounted only on ships larger than a cruiser (not because of the recoil but because the gravitational pull of so many black holes can rip apart any ship that's smaller), these weapons fire dense graviton-clusters at an extremely high rate of fire and muzzle velocity, essentially making it a black hole machine gun or a laser. This weapon is powerful enough to be known as a Planet Killing weapon, though it's rarely used in such a manner due to a rather unfortunate effect of possibly creating a bigger black hole. This same effect applies to targeting stars, though at a much larger scale (although in the case of a star it creates a black hole). The biggest flaw with this weapon is it's slow recharge rate, which makes this weapon a one-shot weapon of last resort, and is usually never used unless absolutely necessary. This weapon does have the ability to fire black holes of different sizes, and has the ability to accelerate the natural decay of said black holes so they naturally destroy themselves. * Tachyon Lance - A very advanced Tachyon weapon, the Tachyon Lance is by far one of the most powerful weapons devised by the Huron that isn't a bomb or a superweapon. The Tachyon Lance takes the qualities of the Tachyon emitter, and enhances them to the degree where a shot from this weapon can destabilize stars. Although slightly weaker than the Void Lance, this weapon is considered to be an alternative in the case the Void Lance is more likely to cause problems than fix them. Specialized weapons There are some cases where the Huron has a need for more specialized weaponry, perhaps in the situation where an enemy that they rarely encounter happens. These weapons are specialized in attacking certain types of targets, and every ship in the Huron Navy has at least one, and can be refitted to fit more if needed. * Realspace Pulse cannon - '''Not so much of an extremely destructive weapon, but more of a weapon designed to fire in multiple dimensions, making this weapon extremely effective against extradimensional beings and their tech. They fire a micro-gravity pulse that causes a 'ripple' in the space-time fabric travelling faster than light, causing the rift between dimensions to weaken just enough to bring extradimensional beings into one dimension, leaving them extremely vulnerable to attack. They are only used against such beings, as they have very limited uses against creatures of the 'material' world. Due to this, they are viewed as more of a support device than an actual weapon, but some ships are designed to use these almost exclusively, and since they do very limited amounts of damage, they are still considered to be 'weapons'. * '''Rad-cannon - These guns do exactly what the name implies: they fire radiation at such an intensity organic life withers away in seconds. Used exclusively against organic or biological targets, since most forms of shielding and dense materials can resist such radiation. * Fletchette Dispenser - A very unique weapon, this weapon doesn't necessarily fire anything, but instead 'drops' hundreds of thousands of molecularly-unstable fletchettes. These fletchettes are razor sharp, and if impacted with enough force can not only cut through starcraft armor, but also explodes with enough force to destroy said starcraft from inside the craft. The dispenser is commonly used by corvettes as a form of minelaying technology. It's biggest weakness, however, is that these fletchettes don't tend to last too long and they are not effective at all against anything else. * Grav-mines - As their name suggests, these are mines designed to be attracted to gravity wells (even micro-gravity), and are devastating to even larger warships. Corvettes and destroyers typically carry a few clusters if they're assigned to defend something. Defensive ordnance / modules The key for an effective war machine is not only extreme firepower, but also the ability to take that damage and actually get to where they need to be. * Chaff launcher - In the case that guided munitions get past the point defense, chaff launchers launch hundreds of thousands of tiny leaflets that emit heat and radiation on multiple spectrums at sublight speeds. Chaff launchers are only used as a last-ditch option, as it is not guaranteed to work. * Phasic Shielding - Phasic shielding works much like earlier energy and barrier shields. Phasic shielding defends against kinetic and heat energy strikes, and it's what allows combat-capable ships with these shields to survive in the corona of a yellow dwarf star. Every ship above starcraft-level has this shield type. As of recently, Huron scientists have been toying with the idea of making standard phasic shielding with the capability of deflecting or even absorbing trans-dimensional attacks. However, for now they will have to depend on another type of shielding. * Void shields - Void shields are advanced shields capable of doing the same things that Phasic shielding can, but on a whole different level. It essentially uses the same tech that Fold drives and Rift Stabilizers use, except instead of repairing or damaging the rift, it instead surrounds the ship itself with a thin layer of this rift, making the shield exist in multiple (or all) dimensions. This is currently an experimental technology, and as of right now is enduring trials. * Dark-Energy shields - Dark-energy shields are shields of immense power, to the point where they can take the firepower to destroy stars. Dark-energy shields utilize dark-energy technology to create a thin barrier of dark energy around the ship, enabling the ship to take hits that even ultraheavy phasic shields would have trouble with. The smallest Dark-energy shield can absorb enough energy to destroy a yellow dwarf star. Indirect support weapons These modules are designed not to outright deal damage, but rather to hinder an enemy's ability to defend themselves, or to attack. * Quantum wave generator '- Utilizing quantum entanglement, these generators emitt an electromagnetic signal that stretches for tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of kilometers, depending on how far away they are from the systems star(s). These signals are strong enough to disrupt even the bio-wavelength emitters the Sauronids use as communication, and have some degree of disruption with psychic energies (though it's rather miniscule). * '''Micro-gravity well '- Micro-gravity wells are rare modules used to disrupt smaller starcraft and mess with torpedoes and missiles guidance systems. Since the graviton cannon was developed, these modules were slowly phased out. Activation of these modules not only resulted in slowing down enemy starcraft, but also friendlies, speeding up their decommission within the Huron navy. * '''Realspace wave generator - Sometimes considered superior to quantum generators, Realspace wave generators rely on rapid gravity pulses to disrupt communication. They don't have quite the same range, however they are much more reliable, as they do not rely on how far they are from the system's parent star. As a side effect, it disrupts the Fold drives of any race that uses them. * Nanite control module - Nanite control modules are designed to contain and control nanite swarms. Nanites are primarily used as advanced construction and maintanence bots, although they do have some uses as weapons. With recent incursions from races that have a 'corruption' effect on whatever they touch, nanites have been adapted as a means of defense against such races (think of it as being a physical anti-virus), sometimes even turning those same properties against the enemy. * Reflector modules - These oddly-named modules are the 'stealth' modules for the ships. These modules have two modes: they can either hide the ship from all known light spectrums (including thermal energy, which means the ship is slowly gaining heat from it's use), or they can match the surrounding area (especially in dense asteroid and debris fields). These modules aren't used often, as the Huron have learned that stealth in space isn't too good of an idea when the effective combat range for most weapons (except for PD) are multiple AU. Miscellaneous modules Modules that are required for a ship to function, but aren't necessarily required for combat. * Realspace sonar - Realspacce sonar is the base method of detection and intelligence gathering in the Huron Navy. Much like sonar in real life, these modules have two modes: passive and active. In active mode, Realspace sonar sends out a very small gravity distortion travelling faster than the speed of light. The sensors are sensitive enough to detect miniscule fluctuations in this distortion, and is able to pinpoint the location of said fluctuation. The passive mode is this only it detects them without sending out a pulse. This also has an additional effect of getting a relative size of the ships in question. Neutron stars and singularities (other than the Void Lance) can mess with these sonar modules. * Spectrum scanners - This method of detection relies on detecting radiation emitting from their targets, whether it's visual or not. The range on this scanner is theoretically indefinite, although it takes a fair bit longer than Realspace sonar (both because of the speed of light and to detect miniscule radiation changes). Black holes can still mess with them, though neutron stars usually don't unless the ship is near the poles of the star. * Trans-dimensional radar (TDR) - This is the first useable technology that utilizes phase technology. The sensor goes in and out of several dimensions, detecting psychic emitions anywhere within several AU of the ship. It also monitors the rift between dimensions, and has the ability to detect if something is 'coming through'. Usually a ship equipped with this module is also equipped with Tachyon emitters, although in most fleets at least one ship is equipped with one at any given time. TDR has been known for detecting small 'fissures' in the Rift, and being able to detect the flow of energy into other dimensions, making TDR useful in tracking down psychic enemies. * Rift Stabliizer - An ancient device reverse engineered from precursor tech, the Rift stabilizer is archeotech so advanced the Huron don't know how exactly it works, though that doesn't stop the Huron from building a lot of them. These devices do something similar to that of the Fold drive, but instead of weakening the rift between dimensions, it instead strengthens it, blocking off psychic energies and preventing trans-dimensional beings from coming through the rift. This device has been used to repair breaches in the rift before, although getting close enough to repair said breaches is a whole different matter. These devices are seen both in space and on the ground, though some are more powerful than others. Typically the stabilizers in space have a range of around 2 AU, although some have been known to cover an entire star system (around 60 AU), whereas the ones on the ground, depending on the gravity of the planet or moon in question, can cover anywhere from a few miles to the entire planet (Planetbound stabilizers can reach into high-orbit). Missiles and unguided ordnance Missiles and unguided ordnance like torpedoes still see good use in the Huron military, despite their concept being rather old. Guided munitions are great for attacking enemies from a far range, or from behind a celestial object like a planet or a star, due to the speed of most missiles. * Boron-class torpedoes - Boron torpedoes are large torpedoes designed to cause as much destruction as possible without breaking reality. Boron torpedoes can be armed with different warheads, though the most common are conventional plasma warheads. * Phalanx-class light guided missiles - Phalanx missiles are smaller versions of the Boron torpedo, except they are guided, and travel much faster. Typically launched in large swarms to overwhelm point-defense, and due to their speed they are sometimes armed with pulse warheads, making them effective at taking down Phasic shields. * Rift torpedoes - These torpedoes are large and very powerful torpedoes designed to unleash as much destruction as possible. This torpedo utilizes an unstable fold drive as a warhead which, upon detonation, creates temporary rift between dimensions. The initial explosion can range anywhere from modern city-busting to destabilizing brown dwarf stars, although the secondary effects are usually much worse. * Archer missiles - While Phalanx missiles are very fast and agile, they usually don't pack enough punch to harm larger ships. The Archer is a larger, more powerful version of the phalanx more designed against capital ships. * Weaver missiles - An even bigger version of the Archer, Weaver missiles are large but also very fast and agile missiles geared towards the destruction of supercapitals. Their guidance systems are designed to use unorthodox and random movements to assist in avoiding point defense fire, and their warheads are at a base capable of destroying planets. However, these missiles are only realistically carried by larger Battlecruisers or battleships at least, and are far more commonly found on ships larger than battleships, including some supercarriers. * Anvil torpedoes - Very large and powerful anti-ship torpedoes, Anvils are geared specifically for targetting supercapitals, and have the firepower to destroy gas giants quite easily. Anvils come with a variety of warheads, including void warheads, and dark-energy warheads, capable of destroying stars. Anvils are typically only used by supercapital ships, and are seldom fired unless deemed necessary.